Balloons have been used for many years as objects of play. Children and adults often use balloons as decorations and costumes, and for play battle/sport. The bright colors, low cost, lightweight and squishy nature of balloons make them a suitable toy for children and adults to enjoy. Children use toy balloon swords because they give each child a way to act out battle; sports without a risk of harm from their play weapon during play. Since balloons also have the tendency to light up, they have been used to simulate light sabers. balloons are also known for their ability to create a loud sound when they burst, typically resulting in sound levels of around 125 decibels.
Clowns and entertainers have made balloon swords for decades. A thin balloon's long shaft is twisted into a shape having a long end leading to a simulated cross-guard just above a grip. A pommel is sometimes simulated by adding a twist and knot to the grip's end for the appearance of a real sword's pommel feature. However, these balloon swords often are difficult to maintain a grip and do not have any structural rigidity to support the balloon for more serious and engaging sword fight games. Nevertheless, these toys are common, fun, and have inspired other toy sword inventions including devices that use a balloon attached to a grip to simulate a sword with a light in the handle to make the balloon glow and a pump in the handle can blow up the balloon. This lets players simulate battle/sport but does not offer a clear indication of win. This lack of certainty often causes fights amongst players. We often hear kids, in fantasy battle/sport, say things like, “You didn't win because I hit you first”, or “you would have dropped the sword before you hit me because I got your leg.” While these tussles are often minor, they do make it difficult to keep score and cause delays during play. Sometimes feelings are hurt and the enjoyment of the battle/sport is lessened. There is no sword game that indicates a clear winner in a fantasy battle/sport.
Other inventions attempt to solve the problem, caused by a lack of clear winner indication, by using a sound generating mechanism to indicate a win. One example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,476,141 entitled Toy Balloon Saber and U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,242 entitled Toy Sword with Contact Indicator show a play sword with an ability to pop an internal balloon when pressure is applied to the sword's tip. An unfortunate problem with this invention is that the winner, the victor of the play battle/sport, is the one whose weapon is damaged to indicate the win. This means that even though the player won the battle/sport, that player loses a feature of his/her own sword. There have been attempts to remedy this problem by audiovisual feedback in the form of a sound and/or light generator. But the sounds and light created by the generators do not disengage the losing player from the sword/battle game. The losing player, despite audiovisual feedback indicating such, is still capable of using the sword.
In prior sword game technologies, game and role play was neither exciting nor clearly indicated the real and actual winner of the game. Play battle/sport equipment without an ability to simultaneously reveal a winner and disengage a loser often leads to arguments. Technology that destroys or damages the winner's equipment to indicate a win is counterintuitive and disheartening to the winner.
Furthermore, in traditional battle and sword fight toy games, player one and player two hit each other's swords. The indication of a win or a loss is indicated by a response from at least one of the player's swords. If one player, with his/her sword, contacts the other player's body, then the sword likely will not be able to disengage or indicate a loss for the “losing” player. The “losing” player will continue to be able to play in the sword fight game, even though the player had been struck on a “lethal” area of the body.